Children of Samuel2 and Abigail (Pratt) Hall

As previously written, Samuel and Abigail (Pratt) Hall had four known children with Jonathan Hall, born August 22, 1686 being the eldest son and Samuel Hall, born 1688, being the youngest son. Jonathan’s birth is documented in the Taunton Proprietor’s Records, while Samuel’s birth year is taken from David B. Hall’s 1883 publication, The Halls of New England, p. 578, in which no documentation is offered; and, I have yet to find any actual documentation of his birth. So unless or until that documentation can be found, I use 1688 as the tentative birth year for Samuel. Esther Hall was the eldest daughter, date of birth unknown, while Hannah is the younger daughter, as confirmed by the Last Will and Testament of Samuel Hall. Hannah was born circa 1700.

Before treating the children of Samuel and Abigail Hall, I think it would be beneficial to give you some background for further understanding of this Hall family. I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about a few published genealogy books (secondary sources) that had been the source of, or continued to contribute to, the confusion of the Samuel Halls in Taunton and Raynham, and their wives and children.

While The Halls of New England is a large, and for the most part, impressive effort to bring together the genealogies of multiple Hall families in early New England, it is not without mistakes and some are just outright huge glaring errors. This book has a fair amount of good information on Abigail (Pratt) Hall and her children, however, David B. Hall makes a huge mistake when he attaches Abigail and her children to the wrong Hall family! He places Abigail and her children, as well as their descendants into the chapter on the “Halls of Taunton” with Abigail as the wife of Samuel Hall, son of Samuel Hall, son of George Hall. This is wrong. Probate documents along with deeds have proven it so, not to mention the new ultimate tool of documentation that goes along with a good paper trail…DNA testing. A descendant of George Hall of Taunton through his son Samuel and his son Samuel, who married Elizabeth Bourne has recently perfectly matched another proven descendant of George Hall of Taunton. See George Hall and Edward Hall DNA.

Abigail and her children instead should have been placed into the chapter on the “Halls of Rehoboth”, with Abigail as the wife of Samuel Hall, son of Edward Hall, where she and her children and their descendants properly belong. This error has been perpetuated time after time in other published genealogies, The Nicholas White Family 1643-1900, compiled by Thomas J. Lothrop, 1902, for one, and unfortunately, has much more recently been reaffirmed in the 1998 publication by Robert Leo Hall, George Hall and His Descendants (1603-1669), when the author cites the work of David B. Hall in his presentation of the Samuel and Abigail (Pratt) Hall line. This will all be discussed a bit more in-depth in a future post.

In addition to the huge error mentioned above, David B. Hall, in his The Halls of New England made other errors in his narrative about the children when he stated that Samuel Hall (1688) left a will (p. 578) and that Hannah Hall married Silas King (p. 572). Samuel Hall (1688) actually died intestate and Hannah Hall married Barnabas Crossman. Unfortunately these errors have also carried over into other publications and genealogies.

Continuing with the children….

Jonathan3 Hall married first Sarah Ockington and second, Sarah Smith. Jonathan Hall and his family will be treated fully in a future post.

Samuel3 Hall, born 1688, married Mercy Willis, born circa 1690, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 15, 1718 (Bridgewater Vital Records). It has been speculated that her parents were Comfort and Hannah Willis, however, absolutely no documentation has been found to prove this. Samuel inherited his father’s homestead in that part of Taunton that became Raynham on the road leading to Taunton from Bridgewater.

Samuel3 and Mercy (Willis) Hall had four children:

Hannah4 Hall, born abt. 1718/19, married Joseph Alden (1716-1787), son of John Alden and Hannah White. She died July 1, 1766 and is buried in the Purchade Cemetery, Middleboro, Massachusetts. Their children were Ebenezer5, Amariah5, Moses5, Phebe5, Hannah5, Joseph5, Fear5, Eunice5, Lois5, Abner5, and Eliab5 Alden. Note: Fear5 Alden married her second cousin, Lewis Hall5, son of Amos4 and Abigail (Blake) Hall; Lois5 Alden married first Samuel Padelford, and second Reuben Hall5, son of Amariah4 and Hannah (White) Hall.

Amariah4 Hall, born 1723/24, married November 27, 1747, Hannah White, dau. of Samuel White and Susanna Goodspeed. He died April 22, 1775 and is buried in the Town Cemetery at Raynham Center, Massachusetts. Their children were Reuben5, Susannah5, Prudence5, Samuel5, Amariah Jr.5, Hannah5, Zilpah5, Philena5, Pamelia5, and Asa5 Hall.

Mercy4 Hall, born 1728/29, married her first cousin, Mason4 Hall (son of Jonathan3 Hall, Sr. and Sarah Ockington), in Raynham, January 16, 1748/49. She died July 9, 1792. Their children were Patience5, Sarah5, Mercy5 and Mason Jr.5 Hall.

Patience4 Hall, born abt. 1731, married Abraham Jones February 6, 1755 in either Raynham or East Bridgewater (marriage is recorded in both the Raynham Church Records and the East Bridgewater VRs). She died September 13, 1775. Their children were Sarah5, Abraham5, Israel5, Eliakim5, and Joel5 Jones. It is possible that it is this Abraham Jones who *might* have married second, Waitstill Lee of Bridgewater on May 28, 1777, however this has not been documented.

Samuel3 Hall died 1736/37 and he did not leave a will. His estate was administered in 1741 and an order issued for the division of his property in 1743. The division names his widow, Mercy Hall, Amariah Hall, his only son, Hannah Hall his eldest daughter, Mercy Hall his second daughter, and Patience Hall, the youngest daughter. The burial location of Samuel Hall has not been determined.

Samuel’s sisters, Esther3 Hall and Hannah3 Hall are further identified in the above mentioned administration papers by their husbands’ names, when a legacy is paid from Samuel’s estate: “To said Blake [Samuel] and wife and to Barnabas Crossman and wife of Middleborough (by ye last will of said deceased’s father see Will), a Legacy – one of them from the share of the deceased. Paid Ten Pounds”.

Nothing further has been found on Esther3 Hall and her husband, Samuel Blake.

Hannah3 Hall married Barnabas Crossman about 1728. Their children were Elisha4, Hannah4, Barnabas4, Elkanah4, Abigail4, Samuel4, and Theophilus4 Crossman. Barnabas died October 1, 1744, in Middleborough, Massachusetts. It is possible that it was the widow Hannah Crossman who married Thomas Baker in Raynham on June 27, 1751, however, this information comes from the Mahurin Genealogy (Hugh Mahurin of Taunton, Massachusetts, NEHGR 136:20) and is not documented, and no further research has been done. If this is correct in the Mahurin Genealogy, Hannah, died December 14, 1754 in Raynham, Massachusetts. However, the Mahurin Genealogy became of interest to me because it has that Hannah Mahurin, not Hannah Hall, married Barnabas Crossman so in-depth research and documentation would need to be done to determine if the widow Hannah Crossman remarried and her death date. The fact that it was Hannah Hall and not Hannah Mahurin that married Barnabas Crossman is documented by probate records.

Addendum to Post, February 13, 2010. A review of the Mahurin Genealogy finds that the author stated that his information that Barnabas Crossman married Hannah Mahurin came from the Bassett Genealogy as well as private correspondence and that he, unfortunately, had yet to find a primary reference source to fully confirm this identity. We now know that he could not find the primary reference source because it was Hannah Hall, not Hannah Mahurin who married Barnabas Crossman, as identified by Bristol County Probate records.

Sources for the marriage (2 records) and death of Hannah (Hall) Crossman Baker are:

5 thoughts on “Children of Samuel2 and Abigail (Pratt) Hall”

Thanks so much for the information on Hannah HALL, not Hannah MAHURIN, marrying Barnabas CROSSMAN.

In (again!) trying to identify my 5th-g-grandmother, first of wife of Benjamin HATHAWAY (1699 MA – 1762 MJ), I decided to further investigate the families of his second wife (Elizabeth MAHURIN) and her first husband, Theophilus CROSSMAN.

Had I not found your excellent post, I’d still be thinking sisters might have married brothers.

Susan, you are welcome and thank you so much for your gracious comments about our research! We enjoy the hunt and adding primary sources whenever we can to either firm up what had been circumstantial evidence or to correct errors in secondary sources. I find it exciting that the post has helped you in your genealogy! Good luck to you in your future research.

Re: Hannah Hall Alden – she was born 1722. I collect samplers and have her sampler which states in the text she made it when 8 years old and dated 1730. If you would like a photo and transcription would be glad to supply it. Aware of desire to have documented dates. This would make the death date 1766 – have seen various dates for the Purchade monument and can understand the number of various dates attributed to it due to advanced deterioration of the stone.

Thank you for your good work! I believe I am descended from Hannah Hall, the daughter of Amariah Hall of Raynham and his wife Hannah. Findagrave has the inscription on Amariah’s gravestone at Raynham as: In memory of Mr. Amariah Hall died Apl 22 1775 in ye 51st year of his age.” Thomas Lothrop (1902) and David. B. Hall (1883), in editions of their works available at archive.org, have Amariah’s daughter Hannah as being married to She Silvester. No birthdate is given for Seth’s wife Hannah. The1783 marriage of Seth Silvester and Hannah Hall is presented in a credible transcription of the notes of Rev. Perez Fobes of Raynham. The 1784 birth of my ancestor, Lucy Silvester, to Seth Silvester and Hannah appears in the Vital Records of Middleborough. Soon after the birth of Lucy Silvester, Seth Silvester began having children by Hannah Eddy.

I would like to know more about Hannah Hall Silvester. Maybe someone reading this could help. My questions are pretty basic.

1. When and where was she born?

2. When and where did she die?

3. Who was her mother? I believe her mother was Hannah (Goodspeed) White, as you say, but the copy of David B. Hall’s work that I found on archive.org and in some other free downloads has her mother as Hannah Dean. There is an obvious redaction of the passage, with a covering patch obvious and “Hannah Dean” appearing in a different font than the rest of the page, but the Hannah Dean tradition persists in several published pedigrees, and I’m having a hard time dismissing it.

I am fascinated to see that the house that Amariah Hall built at Raynham in 1761 is still occupied and looks good. It’s at 656 Main Street (check it out on Zillow or Google Maps). It has functioned as a parsonage, tavern, and singing school. My own house in WV looks very much like it!

You’re welcome and thank you for your kind words. You’ve read my post so you know that in part I was addressing an error in the David B. Hall work. Not to say that it is not a wonderful source of information, however, it does contain errors and I try to address those errors when I find them. Unfortunately, errors can be perpetual. I’ve not found any records that name Amariah’s wife as being a Dean.

Having said that, I have copies of the Raynham Church records. In those records the marriage of Amariah Hall is recorded as follows:

Nov 26, 1747 Amariah Hall and Hannah White both of this town were married.

The name of Amariah’s wife is also confirmed as being Hannah White in the Town and Vital Records for Raynham, giving the marriage year as 1747.

There are no births in the church records, however, there are baptisms. For Amariah and Hannah (White) Hall’s daughter, Hannah, the following is recorded:

March 22, 1761 Hannah the daughter of Amariah Hall and Hannah his wife was baptised.

Also recorded in the church records is Hannah’s marriage:

Nov 30 1783 Seth Silvester of Bridgewater and Hannah Hall of this town.

I’ve not yet found a record of Hannah’s death. Nor have I found a record of Seth’s marriage to Hannah Eddy.

Thanks again for your comment. Perhaps others researching this family will be able to add to the information.